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Bloomberg- William Ackman, the activist hedge fund manager, increased his $2 billion bet on Target Corp. as shares of the second-largest U.S. discount retailer declined as much as 38 percent in the past year, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Pershing Square Capital Management LP, Ackman’s New York- based firm, added at least $100 million to the hedge fund it started last year to invest in Target. Ackman personally committed $5 million and solicited money from current and new investors, said the people, who declined to be identified because the fund is private.
Bloomberg- William Ackman put more cash into the $2 billion hedge fund he started to invest in Target Corp. as shares of the second-largest U.S. discount retailer declined 38 percent in the past year, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Pershing Square Capital Management LP, Ackman’s New York- based firm, added at least $100 million to the fund, while he personally committed $5 million. Ackman also solicited money from current and new investors, said the people, who declined to be identified because the fund is private.
The Target fund’s loss may exceed the drop in the Minneapolis-based company’s stock because it uses derivatives, which can amplify gains and losses. Target peaked at a record $70.14 on July 13, 2007, three days before Ackman disclosed owning a stake. Earnings have fallen for three straight quarters as consumers cut back on purchases of clothing and home goods.
New York Post- Women’s clothier Charming Shoppes booted CEO Dorrit J. Bern less than two weeks after a pair of dissident hedge funds officially secured seats on the board.
Board-level talks to oust Bern, who’s eligible to earn up to $10.5 million in severance, kicked off June 26, hours after representatives from hedge funds Crescendo Partners and Myca Partners were officially sworn in as directors, The Post has learned.
Reuters- Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that claimed the world’s largest soft drink maker artificially inflated sales to boost its stock price, according to court documents.
The lawsuit, filed in October 2000, claimed that in 1999 Coca-Cola had forced some bottlers to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of unnecessary beverage concentrate in an effort to make its sales seem higher.
Bottlers use the beverage concentrate to make soft drinks.
Institutional investors, led by Carpenters Health & Welface Fund of Philadelphia & Vicinity, said the practice, known as "channel stuffing," artificially inflated Coca-Cola’s results and gave investors a false picture of the company’s health.
Isle of Man Today- An Isle of Man hedge fund has won a prestigious industry award on the third occasion it was shortlisted.
Oceanic Hedge Fund was named Best Energy Hedge Fund on a Risk Adjusted Basis at the eighth annual Hedge Funds Review’s European Performance Awards in 2008.
The fund – which focuses on energy and shipping – was launched in August 2002 with less than US$ 5 million in net assets, but now has assets of $1.7 billion.
Its investment manager is Oceanic Investment Management, a subsidiary of Tufton Oceanic, based at St George’s Court in Douglas.
The Advocate – A Greenwich hedge fund has become ensnared in a legal dispute with one of its investors after refusing to allow the firm to withdraw the $5 million originally invested in the fund.
SageCrest LLC, a Greenwich hedge fund that at one point controlled about $990 million in assets, has been sued by Wood Creek Capital Management, a New Haven-based hedge fund that for more than a year has been seeking to redeem the $5 million it invested in SageCrest.
In a court documents filed in state Superior Court in Stamford last week, Wood Creek officials claimed SageCrest, which is managed by Windmill Management LLC, also of Greenwich, rescinded on agreement to return the $5 million to the New Haven firm, which was requested after the Greenwich firm started posting unsatisfactory returns last year.
In a separate declaratory judgment filed in Delaware courts, the state where SageCrest was organized, the Greenwich hedge fund claimed its original contract with Wood Creek gave them the right to refuse any redemption requests if "the redemption would have an adverse effect" on the fund.
SageCrest "needed to gate the fund," said Bill Brewer, an attorney for the Greenwich fund and a partner at Bickel & Brewer, a law firm with offices in New York and Dallas.
Hedge funds typically throw up their "gates" as a way to preserve liquidity in adverse market conditions.
